Suede – “Coming Up” – 25 year Anniversary Tour 2021 

Victoria Warehouse, Manchester.

10 November 2021

To say I’ve been looking forward to this one would be a massive understatement.  I’m a huge Suede fan.  It’s been 18 months from the original date and 2 rescheduled dates in the making, but finally, this ‘Coming Up‘ tour has arrived.

Manchester is the setting for tonight’s outing, in the heart of Trafford, not far from Media City, the TV studios, and home to the famous cobbles of Coronation Street. It’s a predominantly industrial area, and pretty difficult to get to if you’re not travelling by car.  We’re walking down Matt Busby Way, right past the iconic Old Trafford football stadium, base camp of Manchester United, and our venue isn’t far. Tonight we’re at the 02 Victoria Warehouse. Built between 1925 and 1932, this looming industrial giant of a building is hard to miss. Dominating the canal side, next to Manchester locks, this is one of the only surviving warehouses of its kind. It’s impressive both outside and in.  Inside it’s been kept to its original structure, retaining cast iron columns supporting wooden beams and joists; exposed brick and concrete are the main theme. It’s very cool and edgy.  The performance area seems vast, at 3,500 capacity – not the biggest, but does feel a vast space nonetheless.  Tonight is a sellout, so it’s gonna be a great atmosphere.  Built to house textiles, it was used originally by the Liverpool Warehouse Company, its name still being one of the external features of the architecture.

Support act – Nadine Shah 

Brett  Anderson himself said after hearing Nadine Shah’s song ‘Fool‘ on the radio… “I just thought: ‘Shit, I wish I’d written that song’ “, stating that he decided there and then that he was going to get her to tour with Suede. Some endorsement indeed!  And one she fully lives up to indie rock, loud and cool, Nadine (Shah) has one powerful voice. She puts so much into her performance: you can see this means so much to her and she’s making the most of every minute.  This is some warm up and we are well and truly ready for more now. Energetic and punchy, passionate, I will certainly be looking her music up.  Thank you, Nadine Shah.

Suede:  

Hailed as ‘the best new band in Britain ‘by Melody Maker Magazine in 1992, without even having released any material whatsoever at this point, the flouncing kings of cool and androgynous indie glam pop, and the zeitgeist of a decade, arrive on stage before us.  

Brett Anderson – vocals 

Richard Oakes – lead guitar 

Simon Gilbert – drums 

Matt Osman – bass

Neil Codling – keyboards/guitar/ backing vocals 

Walking on stage to an eerie, strings-only rendition of ‘She’, the band takes their places, picks up their instruments, and ready themselves.  Brett Anderson, possibly THE best frontman of any band ever, saunters on stage, throws his arms facing the audience, and shouts down the mic  ‘Let’s do this.  The crowd goes wild.  The band launch into ‘Rash’, the place becomes alive.  The bottle of excitement has been un-corked.  We know instantly that tonight is gonna be a good one! 

The backdrop is a huge screen, with images of the original artwork from the Trash single by the legendary Peter Saville.  This changes to the relevant image for Wash Song throughout the night.  It’s very effective and really gives that added dimension and real impact. In usual fashion Brett Anderson is all over the stage, getting the fans to sing along, jumping from monitors, swinging his arm around whilst dancing around, and ‘arse smacking’ with the mic (he s made this into an art form). Instantly transporting us all back to the 90s, to the time when Suede ruled the airwaves. This, the Coming Up tour, was initially to celebrate the 25 year anniversary of the original release on September 2nd, 1996.  Having been rescheduled twice due to the pandemic, it’s whipping up a storm in here tonight.  It’s been eagerly anticipated. Tonight is about celebrating the ‘Coming Up’ album, of course, but let’s not forget the countless other material from a ‘super band’ who span decades, from the number one debut album’ Suede’ which took the UK by storm, released in 1993, to the most recent ‘The Blue Hour’ released in 2018, and the numerous masterpieces in between. The band are currently working on new material, and a new album, which I for one cannot wait to hear.  

But back to the ‘Coming Up’ album:  the most pop in the style of all Suede’s albums, it reached number 1 in the album charts and produced a further 5 top ten singles.  The band decided at the time of conception that this new album was to be different, the complete opposite of their last album Dog Man Star.  Critics at the time totally embraced this new pop sound. Brett Anderson was quoted as saying: ‘The album was a strange mixture of self doubt, insane, almost religious self belief. Let’s make an album full of singles and have loads of top ten hits, and that self belief just manifested itself.’  Tonight we get to hear the entire album, played in order, from start to finish in its entirety with no interruptions or gaps, and it’s something special….very special. Beautiful Ones, Lazy, Film Star, Saturday Night, and Trash, those afore-mentioned top ten hits, we’re all eagerly devoured by the fans. But Suede have such a dedicated and diehard following that every single track is celebrated, sung, and enjoyed. The band discuss it often enough – that the song Trash is actually written about themselves, as a band.  It’s about being outsiders, being different and embracing it, living well with it, and almost, well flaunting it.  It’s a case of ‘We’re different and we love it.

It’s this attitude that made Suede so cool, they truly were different, in style, sound, attitude, everything – flouncing around in fur coats and jewellery with floppy hair, determined not to be mainstream. In Brett’s (Anderson’s) words ‘Trash is about being in the band and by extension, it’s about the fans, and the whole kind of ethos of being a ‘Suede’ person – lyrics such as ‘oh maybe maybe it’s our nowhere towns, our nothing places, and our cellophane sounds, maybe it’s our looseness?’  Brett has also described it as the soundtrack to his life.’ It’s about believing the romance of the every day, it’s a celebration, it’s written about us as a gang, the values we stood for, it sounds like a love song, but it’s actually about the identity of the band’.  

After completing what was surely an exhausting set of the entire album, the band go off stage…but are back minutes later, launching straight into ‘Young Men’.  The energy levels are immense. The drumming has a punk feel to it, and the shimmering guitar lines are delicious.  Brett’s voice doesn’t falter, even with all the prancing around (which we can’t get enough of), dancing, dropping to his knees, even lying down, draping himself over a monitor,  It’s perfectly executed, and not one note is missed; it’s mesmerising. It’s guaranteed Suede are consistently good, they’ve always ‘had it’ and always will.  Slick, stylish, glamorous, interesting, sugar-filled, sexy, poptastic, and awe inspiring. Lots of ‘microphotography, a term invented to describe Mr. Anderson and his swinging and lassoing of the mic, resulting in him wrapping it around himself impressively.  It’s all become synonymous with him. His crisp white shirt wet through with sweat before finishing the first song, his energy does not stop – high octane, must-see performance from beginning to end.   The entire venue is a mosh pit, – it’s a Suede thing.  I’ve seen Suede before live – It’s never just the central front area near the stage (like most gigs) that’s bouncing. Suede have the ability to get all 3,500 fans pogoing. It’s some feat and bloody brilliant to be involved in. 

Taking us now, right back in time, with classic Suede hits like We are the Pigs and Metal Mickey, it has now gotten to the total carnage stage in here (good carnage). It feels humid, the air is damp and the heat is coming from thousands of bodies all bouncing, singing, and smiling to these iconic tunes. Yet again it’s reached another level.  It’s felt like minutes when in actual fact it’s been 2 hours!! And Brett (Anderson) has only stopped to catch his breath during performances of slower tempo songs, of which there haven’t been many. His energy, stamina, and vocal control are boundless. None of us want this to end, but like all epic gigs, it draws near its close, finishing up with Animal Nitrate (this was always gonna go off),  it’s like an electrical storm, the singing from the crowd is drowning Brett’s own vocals out, the place is banging, with ripples and waves of bouncing bodies to the horizon. Beaming with joy, Brett gives honest thanks, and the band exits the stage.  The cheers are deafening. Anyone who’s been to a Suede gig before knows there’s always an encore, it’s imminent.

To rapturous applause the band are back on stage, Brett explains:  the final song is to be Life is Golden which he wrote about his son. It’s a touching, heartfelt end, to what can only be described as an out of this world experience. Suede have played to within an inch of their lives tonight, taking us with them on an indie pop filled trip down memory lane. Brett’s voice is distinctive and recognisable and, let’s face it, his was the voice that defined the 90s. The vigor and energy has been so intense tonight that the heat produced, creating condensation throughout the venue, had caused a strong smell of metal from the iron columns.  I  remark to my accompanying friend that this metal smell will forever be associated with and will always remind us now of this most exuberant of experiences.  Every time I listen to a song from the Coming Up album it will bring back that smell, that heat, that energy, that buzz, from being a part of the biggest indie pop party gig I’ve ever been to. Sparkling, glistening, transcending, glamorous…we have been completely satiated tonight.

Thank you ‘insatiable ones’, thank you prancing indie pop gods….thank you Suede. 

Setlist :

Coming Up album set list  –

 She (strings walk on) 

Trash 

Film star

Lazy 

By the sea

She 

Beautiful Ones 

Star crazy 

Picnic by the sea 

The chemistry between us 

Saturday night 

Set 2  –

Young men

 No tomorrow 

It starts and ends with you 

Fool (cover duet with Nadine Shah) 

Can’t get enough

 We are the pigs 

Metal Mickey 

Animal nitrate 

Encore  – Life is golden